1. Field of the Invention
The instant disclosure relates to a printed circuit board precursor and a method of manufacturing the same and a flexible printed circuit board; in particular, to a method utilizing electroplating without electrolysis to form an electroplated layer and then electroplating a metal layer as a printed circuit board precursor.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional flexible printed circuit board is produced by fabricating on a half-finished precursor. A metallic conductive layer is required to cover the precursor for facilitating subsequent fabrication. In general, it is difficult to apply metal on the surface of the precursor because the precursor is made of polyimide which shows less affinity to metal. Conventional treatment to the precursor includes metal spray, sputter, CVD, vapor deposition and dry spreading. However, the abovementioned methods result in a layer which is too thick or too thin, or the process of the methods is time consuming. If the precursor is too thick, it might not fit in a compact module. The yield rate is restrained by the long processing time, and the process has high tendency of failure. Therefore the production cost remains high. In addition, because the thickness of the metallic conductive layer cannot be easily controlled, a customized metallic conductive layer for a specific purpose cannot be satisfied.
Furthermore, the quality of commercially available half-finished precursors is not stable, and the options of materials are limited. Hence, there is an urgent need to provide an easier method of manufacturing the precursor, such that the overall quality can be better controlled.
To address the above issues, the inventor strives via associated experience and research to present the instant disclosure, which can effectively improve the limitation described above.